My Wet Foot

[Woodcutteranon]

This has never happened to me before...

I had cut down a dying black cherry tree...about 24 inch dbh last evening.

As I was cutting the stump off, flush to the ground, I started getting this strange feeling like I had just stepped into a bucket of water. Literally, a gush of water came rushing from the kerf and drenched my left foot. I wear steel toe hiking style boots that have mesh in them for breathing. Soaking wet! I stood back and watched and the water kept coming out for about a good 20-30 seconds. Wow. I wasn't expecting this, especially in the fall. My shoe now smells like wet black cherry.

Safe Cutting

 

[NorthernOntario]

I had a load of logs delivered in the summer; a couple weeks later I'm cutting into one of the maple logs... and water starts gushing out!

Of course, some of that maple is decently dry now. Go figure.

 

[husky455rancher]

ive had it happen to be before too. i found it a little disturbing like like cutting someone in half and getting covered in their blood lol.

 

[3fordasho]

Been cutting lots of siberian elm the last couple weeks. Lots of water in these, maybe it's the really wet summer we've had. Several have sprayed me with water along with saw chips when cutting the notch or backcut.
At least they seem to lose the water fairly quick once split.

 

[KD57]

Never happens here, we don't get water out of the sky, much less a tree, lol.

 

[HOGBEAR]

Us neither. Everything dries out fast here.

 

[banshee67]

i had the same experience the other day dropping a good sized pin oak.. i made my initial cut for the face cut, and as i pulled my saw out.. its gushing water , actually spraying out a bit for the first 5 seconds then gushed like a little waterfall for a good 10+ seconds. ive never had that happen to me before, not like this
ive cut into some real wet black cherry before, but havnt had a gusher yet
ive never cut any softwoods bigger than little scrub trees

 

[Suz]

That was Mother Nature "P:censored:" on your leg!

 

[audible fart]

I was given some large maple rounds recently. They were so wet and rubbery that the wedge jumped 5ft in the air after I hit it w/ the maul. I've split enough to know when that's going to happen before it does. It's kind of funny if you're expecting it. I always imagine a cartoon "boing" sound. When rounds are saturated like that I let them sit a couple weeks before messing with them.

 

[H-Ranch]

I had a load of logs delivered in the summer; a couple weeks later I'm cutting into one of the maple logs... and water starts gushing out!

Same thing happened to me on Monday - I thought something had gone wrong with the chain oiling system because there was this dark fluid all over the place! When I pulled the saw back it just kept pouring out of the log.

 

[Erik B]

Cut up an oak that had been down for awhile and the same thing happened. I was cutting a lot of water.

 

[unclemoustache]

Fascinating! My guess is that the heartwood rotted out (Cherry does that quite easily) and rainwater got in through a knothole and filled it up.

 

[lopro]

Hey...are you sure you're cutting trees and not coconuts!!

 

[davec]

You mean like this? One of my favorite videos...

 

[USMC0802]

Happened with an oak this summer, and it smelled awful.